A comment about my experience in teaching the course. Normally I attact about 25 students, about half of whom are from the Pittsburgh region. The class is always mixed in terms of majors: a few history major; students from engineering, science, and economics; and, students from architecture and the fine arts -- especially art and drama. Some of the most interesting papers have involved students writing about the history of their own families in the region. One student wrote about the history of his family in relation to the Homestead steel works and the town of Homestead from the 1880s through the present. It was so good that I recommended that he revise it and submit it to the journal Pittsburgh History, which will publish it in 2004.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will explore the development of Pittsburgh as an American city. It will not attempt to present a comprehensive history of the city but rather will focus on particular aspects of the Pittsburgh experience. These will include issues of spatial change, creation of a built environment, industrial growth and decline, the role of labor in industrialization, demographic patterns including ethnic and racial patterns, environmental questions, and political and governmental patterns.

COURSE INSTRUCTION
The class will be conducted on a lecture/discussion basis. Each
student is expected to complete the reading by the assigned date. In
addition to the assigned books, articles and other materials will
occasionally be distributed in class or made available through the
internet. During the semester there will be two field trips and an
occasional video assignment. In addition to the books and articles,
videos will be used for class assignments and in-class. Participation
in class discussion is expected, and you will be graded upon the
quality of participation and knowledge of the reading. In addition,
throughout the semester, students will be asked to make special
reports to the class based upon web materials. Several tours of the
city and the region will be held during the semester.

EXAMS AND PAPERS
There will be a midterm take home examination and a final take-home examination in the course. Undergraduate students will be
given a choice between preparing a report on a specific Pittsburgh
neighborhood or writing three books reports over the course of the
semester on books not required in class. History graduate students
will be expected to prepare a research paper on some aspect of
Pittsburgh history. Heinz School students are encouraged to prepare
an essay exploring a contemporary Pittsburgh policy problem that is
strongly influenced by historical events. All paper subjects have to
be approved by the instructor.

City at the Point: Essays on the Social History of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989).

Roy Lubove

Twentieth-Century Pittsburgh, Vol. I (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996,1969).

Joseph F. Wall

Andrew Carnegie (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989).

John Bodnar, Robert Simon and Michael P. Weber

Lives of Their Own (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983). This is the paperback edition by the same authors,Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians, and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900-1960 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982).

Howard P. Chudacoff and Judith E. Smith

The Evolution of American Urban Society (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000, 5th Edition). This is a background text. It should be read throughout the course of the semester.

William Serrin

Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994). This book is out of print but used copies are available via Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I have also put it on reserve in the library.

.Jan. 17_______________________Origins and Background of the City and the RegionRead:
Edward K. Muller, "Metropolis and Region: A Framework for Enquiry Into Western Pennsylvania," in Hays (ed.), City at the Point, pp. 181-211.

.Jan. 22_______________________Imagining Pittsburgh
This session will focus on different images of the city of Pittsburgh. Your assignment for this date is to visit the Carnegie Museum of Art and view the exhibit of W. Eugene Smith's "Pittsburgh Photographs," entitled "Dream Street." Admission is free for students. You are to compare the images you see in the exhibit with your personal impressions, reinforced by various Pittsburgh web sites. You are to prepare a short essay (approximately 3-4 pages) discussing your ideas stimulated by the exhibit and the contemporary imagery. We will return to this question at the end of the semester.

.Feb. 7_______________________
The Growth of Industry: The Worker's PerspectiveRead:
Oestreicher, "Working-Class Formation, Development, and Consciousness in Pittsburgh, 1790-1960," in Hays (ed.), City at the Point, 111-150.

Class Video:
"The River Ran Red," produced and directed by Steffi Domike and Nicole Fauteux (Pennsylvania?: S. Domike and N. Fauteux, c1993).

.Feb. 12_______________________Immigration to PittsburghRead:
Nora Faires, "Immigrants and Industry: Peopling the 'Iron City,'" in Hays (ed.), City at the Point, pp. 3-32;
and Bodnar, Simon and Weber, Lives of Their Own, pp. 1-151.

.Feb. 14_______________________The Development of the Networked City: Transport Innovation, Lighting, Communication, and AnnexationRead:
Tarr, “Infrastructure and City-Building in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in Hays (ed.), City at the Point, pp. 213-240.

.Feb. 19_______________________The Development of the Networked City: Water and Sewerage Systems and the Public Health BurdenRead:
Tarr & Terry Yosie, "Critical Turning Points in Pittsburgh's Water and Wastewater Disposal History," to be distributed (via e-mail).

.Feb. 28_______________________The Growth of the Modern City: Development of the Pittsburgh Central Business DistrictRead:
Tarr, “Infrastructure and City Building,” in Hays (ed.) City at the Point, pp. 240-249.Review:
Relevant sections of "Steel City -
Manufacturing Metropolis: 1876-1945," Pittsburgh History Series, Teachers' Guide- Western PA History and http://www.wqed.org/erc/pghist/units/WPAhist/wpa5.html